Session 12: Portfolio Management Reading 52: Portfolio Risk and Return: Part I
LOS c: Calculate and interpret the mean, variance, and covariance (or correlation) of asset returns based on historical data.
A bond analyst is looking at historical returns for two bonds, Bond 1 and Bond 2. Bond 2’s returns are much more volatile than Bond 1. The variance of returns for Bond 1 is 0.012 and the variance of returns of Bond 2 is 0.308. The correlation between the returns of the two bonds is 0.79, and the covariance is 0.048. If the variance of Bond 1 increases to 0.026 while the variance of Bond B decreases to 0.188 and the covariance remains the same, the correlation between the two bonds will:
P1,2 = 0.048/(0.0260.5 × 0.1880.5) = 0.69 which is lower than the original 0.79. |